A counterfeit Integrated Circuit (IC) is an electronic component with discrepancy on the material, performance or characteristics, but sold as a legitimate chip. It can be an unauthorized copy, remarked/recycled die (e.g., used chip sold as new), cloned design at untrusted foundry, or a misrepresented, failed real part. Counterfeit ICs can have altered functionality, poor performance or degraded reliability of operation. The significant rise in counterfeit ICs is a major concern to chip designers, system integrators as well as end users in the semiconductor industry. The cost of counterfeiting and piracy is estimated to rise to 1.2 to 1.7 trillion dollars by 2015.
The increasingly complex global semiconductor supply chain, spanning different countries and their legal systems to meet the ever-rising demand, provides ample opportunities for adversaries to insert counterfeit chips in the market. Prior to actual deployment, an IC is often bought and resold many times. Purchasers rely on brokers, who in turn may buy from untrustworthy entities including online forums. Various sneak channels are offered by the current semiconductor business model that can be exploited by an adversary. The two major categories of counterfeit ICs include: 1) remarked/recycled and 2) cloned new parts. The former includes the selling of aged chips as new in the open market, after possibly repackaging and relabeling of the die. Cloned chips involve unauthorized production of an IC without legal rights. It is typically performed through reverse engineering an IC or IP piracy at different levels.
The standard chip tests are often inadequate in detecting various forms of counterfeit ICs. Additionally, the existing design-for-counterfeit prevention approaches are often not attractive due to inadequate coverage of counterfeit chips and/or significant design/test effort as well as hardware overhead.